Accelerating Entrepreneurship and Innovation Ecosystems in Lafayette and West Lafayette
MatchBOX Coworking Studio and the Purdue Agile Strategy Lab have entered into a new partnership, further deepening the relationship between MatchBOX and Purdue University. The focus of the new partnership is to provide a test bed for developing and strengthening entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystems.
Dennis Carson, Co-Founder of MatchBOX and Director for Economic Development for the City of Lafayette explained, “As our region attracts and retains talent and grows entrepreneurship, the partnership between the Lab and MatchBOX will be important and impactful. We look forward to developing programs and services using their proven methods to build on our success and the success of our members, their ideas and businesses.”
The Lab works across the U.S. and globally. Lab Director Ed Morrison notes, “Other people talk about entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystems. Together with MatchBOX, we are designing them and guiding them. The lessons learned from this test bed are already being shared with civic leaders from other regions, both nationally and internationally.”
Steve Abel, Associate Provost for Engagement at Purdue offered, “MatchBOX is a critical architect of the rapidly emerging startup and innovation ecosystem in the Wabash Heartland region of Indiana. Through the efforts of this new partnership, entrepreneurs, innovating companies, ecosystem developers and policymakers can gain new insights and form valuable relationships needed to leverage even more of the assets of Purdue University.”
The academic home for the Lab is the School of Engineering Technology (SoET) in the Purdue Polytechnic. Department Head, Ken Burbank, is already seeing new synergies from the partnership. Burbank notes, “The first set of activities MatchBOX and the Lab are engaging in is around Internet of Things (IoT) innovation, open innovation in food technology, helping tech leaders better communicate complex information, and better understanding the cognitive diversity needed in teams to effectively move through the stages of the growth and the innovation process. All of this work leverages assets in the SoET.”
Morrison added, “Word of what’s going on here with MatchBOX and Purdue is already gaining attention. We have interest from both cowork organizations and universities elsewhere in the US and internationally wanting to learn more about this partnership. We would welcome to opportunity to share with other coworking organizations in Indiana what we are doing here in Greater Lafayette.
